Bridal Make-Up Tips

If you are getting married you are no doubt considering what make‐up to wear on the day of your wedding. Whether you are going to D.I.Y it or hire a professional make‐up artist to apply your wedding make‐up, it’s important to know the basic bridal make‐up rules:

If you are planning on having a spray tan or going on a sun bed before your wedding day, make sure your foundation and powder that are going to wear on the big day are not to light for your tanned complexion. Ever noticed a brides face looking to white in her wedding photos? Well, this could be caused from having a spray tan and not changing the colours of the foundation and powder to match the new skin colour. It could also be caused by wearing foundations and powders that are to pink in colour and not more yellow toned. Make‐up artists always opt for more yellow toned shades for the skin – they simply look more natural once blended onto the skin. If you are going to tan your body on a sun bed, but not your face, use a darker foundation on your face to match up to your tanned neck and shoulder area.

If you never really wear make‐up, it’s important to consider wearing it for the day of your wedding. Your photos will last a lifetime, remember when your hair is done and you are looking more elegantly dressed, a make‐up free face won’t work for you.

Wearing a high quality foundation, concealer and powder will help your make‐up last and blend on the skin. It will also ensure a smoother more flawless finish for your wedding photos.

Wearing a concealer over your eye lid area and under your eyes, followed by powder to set the concealer in place, will ensure your eyes look fresher and your eye shadow will last hours longer. This is a trick used by make‐up artists and is possibly one of the most important areas for a professional application of make‐up.

Apply your concealer after your foundation. This way you won’t wipe your concealer off when applying your foundation.

Set your foundation and concealer in place with loose powder.

Shaping and defining your eyebrows is an important area you need to focus on.

Eye make‐up adds more definition to the eyes and brings out your eye colour. Natural applications are suitable for morning or midday weddings and darker defined applications are suitable for afternoon or evening ceremonies. Avoid wearing blues, greens, mauve etc, opt for more neutral shades of grey, beige, stone, brown ‐ the darker your skin the deeper the shades can be. A smokey eye application works well to define and enhance a more glamorous look.

Wear waterproof mascara.

Add shape and colour to your face with blusher in either a dewy cream formula or a regular pressed powder formula. To add shape to the cheeks use neutral shades of blusher directly under your cheek bones. To add colour use subtle pinks and peachy tones on the apple of your cheeks. For darker skin tones increase the intensity of the pink or peach.

If you have small lips aim for a lighter or brighter shade of lipstick, but not darker. Fuller lips are more versatile and suit most lip applications. Lip gloss adds the final touch and softens the face.

Roll up a few tissues and hold them directly behind your bouquet, if you do cry during the ceremony you will have tissues to catch your tears.

Directly after the ceremony is a good time to touch up your make‐up. Provide a small bag of touch up make‐up to one of your bridesmaid’s and a hand mirror, so you can refresh your make‐up before the photos.